From embracing failure to understanding the ‘sharing’ economy, knowing how your customers’ behavior, and their customers’ behavior, is critical for developing a long-term strategy of success and growth.

The U.S. economic recovery has helped fuel a recent wave of mergers and acquisitions among mid-market companies, and Deloitte projects that the wave will continue in the months ahead. Yet prospects remain tentative enough that interest rates remain historically low, encouraging potential company buyers.

Middle-market companies are leading job growth, employing more than 50 million people and making a contribution of nearly $6.2 trillion to the U.S. economy, according to the inaugural Middle Market Power Index by American Express and Dun & Bradstreet.

One of the most under-appreciated factors in the success of a middle-market business—or any company, for that matter—is for the enterprise to have a cohesive internal identity and culture that is authentic and resonates with employees, helping to retain them and keep them happy.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has some very specific reasons for launching a vast restructuring of the American industrial giant that will have the firm sell off GE Capital and exiting the financial services industry. But many of the forces that prompted Immelt’s major strategic move also afflict other financial-services companies, and these pressures aren’t going away.

Capturing actionable data about customers and prospects can help companies achieve the holy grail of marketing—sending the right message to the right customer at the right time. But one company—John Hancock Insurance—has stretched the bar a little farther in achievement of that goal, and its new initiative will catch the attention of CEOs in many industries.

Just when the consensus of American CEOs held that the U.S. economy finally was on an inexorable upswing, March happened: Bad numbers poured in across the board on economic performance. Now business chiefs must figure out—again—what the true state of the economy means for their companies and their plans.

As executive-compensation amounts and internal-pay ratios have risen in visibility with and concern among regulators, investors and the general public, boards of directors must pay more attention to how to communicate these metrics effectively and consistently with a company’s broader disclosure efforts.